While I read about the experiences of people living in Flint, Michigan, whose children have been poisoned as a result of policies instituted by Michigan’s Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and his administration, my husband was playing a song by Roberta Flack. As the lyrics flowed around me “…killing me softly with his song ...” they turned into a dirge in my head, and I couldn’t help but think of all the examples of Republican legislation that is killing people for real.
The “death panels” were hyped by Sarah Palin in an effort to target the Affordable Care Act (ACA). For her fictional exploits, she was awarded “lie of the year” by Politifact in 2009. But her lie was pointing at Democrats, when in actuality it is the Republican Party—ostensibly the “pro-life” group—who sow death and destruction.
Republican governors, Republican-controlled legislatures across the nation, and Republicans in Congress vote to attempt to ensure that certain Americans will go without health care, food, affordable and adequate housing, and safe neighborhoods. They legislate so that certain Americans will die in the death chamber, drink unclean water, breathe dirty air, and shoot themselves and and their neighbors with guns.
They embrace war, and scorn peace. Turning their backs on climate change, and embracing denial—they kill the planet.
They are killing us harshly.
For some readers this may sound like hyperbole. But for those people who lose their children and family members, it is all too real. I watched two family members die because they couldn’t get proper HIV/AIDS health care. I remember when ACT UP staged die-ins to call attention to the epidemic.
Today, Black Lives Matter activists and young people they have inspired stage die-ins across the nation—in the streets, in government buildings and on college campuses. They are protesting systemic racism, police brutality, and a criminal injustice system that is killing us.
Activists from the Moral Mondays Movement in North Carolina have also staged die-ins. They are fighting for the lives of those who will die because Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and the Republican-controlled legislature have refused Medicaid expansion.
“The denial of Medicaid expansion is a form of political and social violence. People are literally dying who don't have to die, simply because extremists in the legislatures and governor's mansions across the South and even here in North Carolina refuse to expand Medicaid, which is morally indefensible," state NAACP President Rev. William Barber said in a statement.
They will be marching on Raleigh again this coming February 13—fighting for the right to live.
Take a look at the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) map of the current status of Medicaid Expansion.
How many people in the orange states on this map will die, or face life-threatening illnesses with no health care simply because their elected officials don’t give a damn?
To ensure these anti-life policies, Republicans are also killing our votes—voting rights that we paid for in blood.
Voter suppression enables Republicans to enact and maintain their deadly policies.
In 2016, 10 states will be putting into place restrictive voting laws that they will be enforcing for the first time in a presidential election. These laws range from new hurdles to registration to cutbacks on early voting to strict voter identification requirements. Collectively, these ten states are home to over 80 million people and will wield 129 of the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the presidency.
The same way that Moral Mondays reclaimed the high ground from the right-wing “Moral Majority,” Democrats need to reclaim the concept of being pro-life.
Because the reality is, we are pro-life.
And death is the specialty of Republicans.